Impact Wrestling/Wrestling Matters

I may not know much of how the wrestling business works behind the scenes, but neither do many of you. I am pretty sure we do not have any former-wrestlers of a large promotion on this site (sorry to say, Ryan Clark). I do however, know a thing or two about business in general. What TNA is doing is exactly what they should be doing at exactly the right time, everyone just needs to see it from a business point of view.

We all know WWE is now dropping the word wrestling from the shows and from it's name. If I remember correctly, many people were disturbed by this. I know my first thoughts were, "why?" What Impact Wrestling (IW) is doing is playing off this emotion, your emotion. Business 101 says that all companies need to change with the competition and evolve with the times if they want to survive. Marketing the idea that you are a wrestling company when your biggest competition is scared to use the word is a simple but ingenious thing.

TNA needed a name change anyway. Sure the abbreviation was different than the competition, not including a 'W' in the mix, but when many people outside the internet fans think TNA stands for "Boobs and Butts" (PG people), you may have a problem. Again, what a perfect time to get rid of that name, and get a name that has wrestling in it. A name that forces you to say "wrestling." The competition is getting wrestling out of it's name, so to make your product stand out put something in that not only the people are looking for, but something that makes you different. I am sure if I asked you if you rather watch good wrestling on Raw or 1 hours of decent promos, you would choose the former. Differentiating your product is key in any industry, and this name change does an awesome job at that.

My next point has to do with everyone that say "TNA always takes shots at WWE" or "TNA needs to stop mentioning WWE on air." They should keep doing it, why? Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who watches TNA knows that WWE exists. Everyone also knows that WWE is the top company in the US. So why hide it? You see it all the time on TV and in advertising:

"Dominoes Pizza beats Papa John's Pizza 4 to 1 in a National taste test"
"Dominoes Pizza uses fresh ingredients, not like those other guys."

And after a while, IF (yes, IF) this IW direction works, you are going to hear "we didn't turn our back on wrestling, like those other guys," and many people are going to get the idea that WWE did. Many of us already think that, but we let our hatred for TNA blind us. We are NOT that casual wrestling fan, we are the marks, like it or not. Both WWE and TNA are not going to cater anything towards us because we are the minority. So trying to convince that fans that are not nearly as passionate about the product and just want to see good wrestling to tune is, is what IW should be doing. So whatever IW is saying may seem like bull to you, but it is not for you.

For those who say the TNA is just re-branding because of WWE is 100% right. Those of you who say that TNA is copying WWE is 100% wrong. TNA is going in a direction that the fans want, marks or casual. If your disregard the names, and I gave you these two choices, which one would you pick?

Choice 1: Company who focus hard on the in-ring product to provide the best wrestling they can offer.

Choice 2: Company who focuses on other types on media, occasionally focusing on the in-ring product.

Business 101 says find out what your target market wants, find out what your competition is doing, and adjust accordingly. TNA or IW is doing a perfect job of this. So bash it if you want, but TNA is doing the same thing WWE would do in this position. Did WWE not adapt it's product to compete with WCW in the last 90s? Exactly.

Of course Vince Russo could book this all down the drain and make this a complete waste of money for IW, time for us, and energy for me defending them, but that is for another blog.

TNA is still TNA Wrestling. TNA Impact is now Impact Wrestling :P
According to Jeff Jarrett's twitter it's only Imapct changing.
So your blog, which would be very good if it was actually the company changing their name, is a bit wide of the mark :P

For everyone that has ever doubted that this is a WWE fanboy forum board please read every post that succeeds the topic of this thread! Its just sadly amusing now...I don't know why you all can't just be honest and admit it by now.

The IWC is to TNA what the Republicans are to Obama: No matter how much good they do...as soon as they're shown to be less than perfect, the other claims that they just can't get anything right.

TNA is still TNA Wrestling. TNA Impact is now Impact Wrestling :P
According to Jeff Jarrett's twitter it's only Imapct changing.
So your blog, which would be very good if it was actually the company changing their name, is a bit wide of the mark :P

No TNA isn't TNA wrestling it's TNA Entertainment it said it at the end of the broadcast.

We all know WWE is now dropping the word wrestling from the shows and from it's name. If I remember correctly, many people were disturbed by this. I know my first thoughts were, "why?" What Impact Wrestling (IW) is doing is playing off this emotion, your emotion. Business 101 says that all companies need to change with the competition and evolve with the times if they want to survive. Marketing the idea that you are a wrestling company when your biggest competition is scared to use the word is a simple but ingenious thing.

To the IWC it is. To every casual fan, it isn't. Outside us, Wrestling is a dirty word to the non-watchers, who out number all fans of wrestling (as ratings show). When you tell them that you watch wrestling, they immediately go for the fake argument, which will lead us to the various reasons to say we like it. With WWE dropping the Wrestling word, we pretty much admit it isn't a sport but entertainment like other TV Shows and Movies we watch. By focusing more on the Word Wrestling, you're only going to force yourself to live up to something you can't deliver as well as alienate those who don't want to watch wrestling in the first place.

My next point has to do with everyone that say "TNA always takes shots at WWE" or "TNA needs to stop mentioning WWE on air." They should keep doing it, why? Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, who watches TNA knows that WWE exists. Everyone also knows that WWE is the top company in the US. So why hide it? You see it all the time on TV and in advertising:

"Dominoes Pizza beats Papa John's Pizza 4 to 1 in a National taste test"
"Dominoes Pizza uses fresh ingredients, not like those other guys."

Here goes the thing about taking shots. Saying you're better than them is a good idea. Saying stuff like "In that company they never let me do anything" is more like saying you're only in TNA to SPITE them; that this is your Plan B. If your shot is, for example from Kurt Angle, "He wanted to be there because he feels this is the next big thing", that's good. If it's Anderson saying "WWE killed my gimmick so I went here", that's bad.

Another thing about those quotes is that they can prove those things. To say we focus on wrestling more than the competition while only providing seven more minutes of it is like saying a videogame system is more powerful because they have seven more bits than their opponent. And especially if the promos still out number the wrestling.

And after a while, IF (yes, IF) this IW direction works, you are going to hear "we didn't turn our back on wrestling, like those other guys," and many people are going to get the idea that WWE did. Many of us already think that, but we let our hatred for TNA blind us. We are NOT that casual wrestling fan, we are the marks, like it or not. Both WWE and TNA are not going to cater anything towards us because we are the minority. So trying to convince that fans that are not nearly as passionate about the product and just want to see good wrestling to tune is, is what IW should be doing. So whatever IW is saying may seem like bull to you, but it is not for you.

It is for us. It's for those fans who exactly feel that WWE turned their backs on Wrestling. Its to lure those who take things too seriously to them. This is the same thing as they tried with Sting's return promo to match Undertaker's.

For those who say the TNA is just re-branding because of WWE is 100% right. Those of you who say that TNA is copying WWE is 100% wrong. TNA is going in a direction that the fans want, marks or casual. If your disregard the names, and I gave you these two choices, which one would you pick?

Choice 1: Company who focus hard on the in-ring product to provide the best wrestling they can offer.

Choice 2: Company who focuses on other types on media, occasionally focusing on the in-ring product.

Business 101 says find out what your target market wants, find out what your competition is doing, and adjust accordingly. TNA or IW is doing a perfect job of this. So bash it if you want, but TNA is doing the same thing WWE would do in this position. Did WWE not adapt it's product to compete with WCW in the last 90s? Exactly.

Gee, I wonder what a wrestling forum would choose between the two choices... Than again, the Target Market for the WWE isn't us. They'll cater to us at times but we are not their main focus. Their main focus is those who would normally NOT watch wrestling. The Attitude Era is the perfect example of this (being a product of the 90s and all): they began to win the Ratings war because they were focused on the characters and the things they do OUTSIDE the ring. The D-X parodies, Stonecold's Beer Bath, the Hardcore Frikkin Title (the fastest any belt has been devalued), Rock singing...

There was some good wrestling in it, but the Attitude Era was mostly filled with a lot of bad idea; ideas so bad, you can make two books and a website about all of them...

TNA's Target Market is us, those who do want to watch Wrestling and especially those who dislike the direction of the WWE. They want to compete but fail to realize that the only way to compete with the WWE is to go after their target demographic. As long as they cater to us, they will always be #2.

And if another wrestling organization could get TV time that is on par to the TV time WWE or TNA does (as in a majority of the cable companies carry them and they get a decent time slot), then I could see them being the new #2. ROH cater to the Wrestling fans a LOT better than TNA does while Chikara (I dare say) is playing the PG game better than WWE is.

Seriously why do people always complain about TNA using former WWE storylines former WWE stars when WWE does the exact same thing i mean did any1 else see WWE take under used stars from WCW back in 1999 like the radicalz then in 2002 they used the NWO storylined that bumed out them with the brand draft its just an WCW vs NWO every1 picking a side thing lets face it most storylines have been used there is only extension onto old storylines.